Luxury Doesn’t Cost as Much as it Used To

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eric
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This week, I’m test driving a 2025 Range Rover Evoq, which is a compact-sized luxury-brand SUV that stickers for $49,900 to start.

That’s a lot – relative to what you used to be expected to pay for a non-luxury-brand something similar. But it’s not all that much more anymore than something similar – sans the luxury brand – costs today.

That makes it seem almost reasonable to get the luxury-branded SUV – because at least you’ll then be driving something with the cachet of a luxury-brand as well as something that’s not the same as everything else not luxury-branded.

Here’s a for-instance, side-by-side comparison that makes the point:

One can buy the Land Rover Evoq for $49,900. It is 172 inches long and powered 2.0 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine that makes 246 horsepower, mated to a full-time AWD system with off-road upgrades, including adjustable drive modes and all-terrain tires.

.

One could also buy a comparably equipped Ford Bronco Sport Badlands trim, comparably kitted out with a 2.0 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine that makes 250 horsepower, mated to a similarly upgraded full-time AWD system.

The Ford is almost exactly the same size – 172.7 inches long – and very similarly priced when fully equipped: $39,995 to start (for the Badlands version that has the 2.0 engine and the beefier AWD system) plus a couple of packages and options, such as the panorama glass sunroof that’s included in the base price of the Evoq.

Add it all up and you are not far from the Evoq’s base price of $49k.

Which is a big difference in what it costs today vs. what it used to cost, luxury vs. non-luxury.

As an example, I wrote recently about the 1979 Olds 98 my parents bought new for just shy of $10k, which amounts to about $43k in today’s devalued dollars. But back in the day, you could buy something fundamentally similar – full-sized, V8 and rear-drive – without the luxury brand – for about $6k – or about $27k today. There was, in other words, a big difference – in price – between a Chevy Malibu or Impala sedan and an Oldsmobile 98 sedan.

Today, the difference in price between the luxury and non-luxury item has narrowed considerably, because almost everything is luxury priced.

Like the Ford Explorer Sport.

Not that there’s anything wrong with it – per Seinfeld. It is a fine little AWD crossover SUV with near- 4WD SUV capabilities off-road when ordered up with the Badlands equipment that’s similar to the standard equipment that is included with the Evoq. But then it costs almost as much as the Evoq – which is more than just fine because it comes standard with the luxury-brand cachet and the something-different you don’t get when you buy the Ford.

Again, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The price gap is even narrower when you get into the nitty gritty about what’s standard – in terms of amenities – in the $49k Range Rover vs. what’s not and costs extra (if it’s even available) in the non-luxury-brand Ford.

For instance, the Evoq comes standard with a superb 12 speaker ultra-premium Meridian audio system; the Ford is available with a 10-speaker Bose system that’s part of a $2,900 Premium package.

It’s not that the Ford isn’t nice. It’s that the Evoq is nicer – and costs not much more than the Evoq when comparably equipped.

 

But they both cost a lot.

It’s hard to not spend luxury car money for a new vehicle, even it it isn’t a luxury-brand vehicle.

You have probably read or heard that the average price paid last year for a new vehicle was nearly $50k – or right in line with the base price of the Evoq or a top-of-the-range Explorer Sport.

That amounts to a roughly $15k increase in the average priced paid for a new vehicle vs. about four years ago. Some of this is attributable to inflation – that is, to currency devaluation. A loaf of bread in Weimar Germany cost a stack, too.

And some of it is attributable to the flooding of what used to be the the market with electric and partially electric (i.e., hybrid) vehicles that cost thousands and even tens of thousands more each.

But the main driver is what you might as well call the luxification of vehicles, generally. Meaning it is no longer possible to buy any new vehicle that does not come standard with most of the features that once separated luxury-brand vehicles from those that didn’t come standard with luxury-brand prices. The list includes “power everything” – windows, locks, etc. – as well as what used to be extra-cost extras such as AC (and especially climate control AC, which used to be found only in luxury-brand vehicles).

There is no longer any such thing as what was once referred to as an economy car. There are entry-level cars. The distinction is important.

Economy cars did not come standard with “power everything” and were not available with the luxury features that are now commonly available even in entry-level cars – including climate control, top-shelf audio systems and the glass-faced, dash-width LCD touchscreen that used to be available only in luxury-brand vehicles as recently as just five or six years ago.

In brief, there’s really not that much difference anymore – so if you’re going to spend luxury car money, why not at least drive home the luxury-brand vehicle?

. . .

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Related posts:
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  2. The Cost of False Prosperity
  3. How Touchscreens Ruined Luxury Cars
  4. Another Hidden Cost You’re Obliged to Pay
  5. Another Entry Luxury-Priced Entry Level EV

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57 COMMENTS

    • We’re driving a loaner 2023 Buick Envision, 2WD, leather, loaded, blah, blah, blah….
      Very similar to this land Rover.
      The sticker on this turbo 2.5L buick gasser?
      $48,500…USD!!!….it took my breath away & made me laugh hard. And it’s little!!! Barely fits 4, and a little space in hatch for their stuff. And MPG is only about 22, even with a 9 speed auto….just an expensive problem waiting to happen.
      Who can afford this insanity? Not the 90% of America….I could buy it, but why? Not a good fit for my needs and just insanely madly expensive for what it is. I’d consider it at $24K perhaps, but at at twice that.. LOL

      YMMV…

  4. High end sports got more expensive….

    1966 Porsche 911 msrp $6,490…$63,500 in 2024 dollars…

    the new 2024 911…at $116,000… has almost doubled in inflation adjusted price…

    and got worse…over weight, computer driven, less engaging…feedback filtered out, full of spyware, etc….

    the 1960’s were better….cheaper 911’s and houses….

    • When I came back from VN I had all my military pay saved up and I treated myself to a lightly used 1972 911S.
      Today’s Porsche people would largely hate it as much as your typical BMW buyer today would never accept a 1970 BMW 2002, but those cars are what made ypunwsnt to drive just for the pure joy of driving.
      Its all gone today. Or vanishing rare anyway

      We are poorer in more ways than just money for it.

  5. Advice from an EeeVee billionaire:

    🚨ELON MUSK: “The car industry is a very difficult industry. There are only two car companies that haven’t gone bankrupt: Ford and Tesla. Rivian is going to have a hard time. It’s insanely difficult to compete in the car industry.

    If it were not for not just one, but two technology discontinuities: one being electrification, the other being autonomy, I think Tesla could not succeed without solving both. Not just one, but both.”

    https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1847450383041646707

    Of Elon’s two musts, electrification is in trouble (thus his sucking up to Trump); while autonomy has not been fully solved (and may never be).

    Either Elon has some new scam up his sleeve, or else Tesla (along with the brain-dead ‘Detroit iron’ makers) is headed for meltdown. Let it bleed.

  6. This is related to the conversation: Mexican saying: those who live like rich people become poor, those who live like poor people become rich. My wife and I drive Hondas, hers a 1999 Civic Ex coupe, mine a 2007 Civic Si. The 1999 has 175,000 miles doesn’t use ANY oil between its annual service, the 2007 with 78,000 miles not even broken in. Paid off our new house in 2.5 years (California), saved tens of thousands in interest, sold the house 10 years later for $620,000 (bought it for $315,000) returned to Midwest City Oklahoma, brand new home in gated community $300,000, paid cash, $300,000 in the bank. Big savings on insurance.

  7. this is unrelated to this thread but fun nonetheless: with regards to our upcoming election, I paraphrase Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes: Four years of imbeciles are enough.

    • Sadly Antoine, there are plenty of imbeciles waiting in the wings ready to replace the ones that left. George Burns was right when he said ” too bad those who could run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair”.

      • I like this one:

        “Not 1 in a million men are fit to rule, least of all those who would choose to do so” – Thomas Jefferson

  8. Those Range Rovers are f ugly. Looks like a block of cheese with slits for windows. The dash looks stupid, but not as bad as many today.

    Next

    • Totally concur. It’s like a bad copy of a 2010 Ford Edge: a low-effort, slab-sided, flat-footed aesthetic. Almost screams to be sold in a brown paper wrapper stenciled GENERIC CAR. Comes with free cutting board and cheese planer.

      Rover should have run a design competition in a junior high school, or paid some students at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) to come up with something ‘edgy.’ #ABJECT FAIL

    • My parents have Range Rovers, so whenever their cars in the shop, they get loaners.

      Defenders are the only RR’s I like, everything else isn’t worth it. It’s a shame because as nimble as the Evoque felt, it was ruined with the ipad dash and lack of features on the center console, felt sterile. Also a shame my parents swore off cars, cause as much as that felt nice, they could find a “luxury” sedan that offered similar performance without the added weight and ground clearance

  9. Acquired by Tata….an East Indian company…. in 2008, Land Rover, alongside Jaguar, became part of Tata’s subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

    A rebadged Ford? Some made in China…

    Land Rover Evoq …3900 lb with a 4 cylinder engine…

    Range Rover vehicles feature different Ford EcoBoost engines, ranging from the 2.0-litre EcoBoost I4 engine to the 3.5-litre EcoBoost V6 engine.

    Assembly…..
    United Kingdom: Halewood
    China: Changshu (Chery Jaguar Land Rover)
    India: Pune (Jaguar Land Rover Pune Operations)
    Brazil: Itatiaia (Jaguar Land Rover Brazil)

    • The 2025 Bronco ……. there’s a standard 300-hp turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder msrp about $42,000….bit more power…curb weight 4900 lb….heavier….bit lower price then the Land Rover Evoq

      2025 Ford Explorer Active RWD…msrp $41,000…curb weight 4300 lb…there’s a standard 300-hp turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder

      4900 lb…with a 4 cylinder….regulations screwing the new vehicles………

    • Ford Ecoboost…..

      The engine with a separate exhaust manifold is the leader around consumer messages about problems with 2.0l EcoBoost engines. The main subject is an exhaust manifold itself. The stainless steel exhaust manifold is prone to cracking and further destruction at relatively low mileage (50-60k miles). The main disadvantage is that the exhaust manifold is one unit with a turbocharger, which makes the replacement is quite expensive.

      Failure of the turbocharger control valve is a common problem. The engine loses power and the message “check engine” appears on the dashboard. When switching off the ignition and then turning it on, the error message disappears. The control valve replacement is required to fix this problem.

      In the fuel system, the main source of trouble is a low-pressure fuel pump. The fuel filter in the tank is easily clogged and does not allow the pump to deliver the required pressure and enough fuel for a correct high-pressure pump operation. A car with that issue has a bad acceleration or slow max speed. Failure of high and low circuit fuel pressure sensors has similar symptoms but happens very rarely.

      The Ecoboost has direct injection….direct injection…because of regulations…..

      3 Big Problems With Direct Injection Engines (Gasoline)….

      Fuel dilution…chain wear…and low speed preignition….

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVd-ZS5bnyY

  10. Before 2023?…slaves would used a heloc to get cash to buy a car…lower interest rate…but still debt…slaves don’t have cash……

  11. One aspect, in “luxury” vs. similar non-luxury, is power/performance.

    BMW “M” series, for instance, offers very high performance
    numbers. Nowhere in non-luxury, that I’m aware of, is
    there equivalent performance available (compact SUVs).

  12. Spot on Eric. I recently made the same observation when my 89yr old Mom, bought here life’s dream of a Porche. She got the base model Macan, that was $60K.
    It surprised me how nice it was in every aspect vs what I was expecting, except the normal Porche thin of being fast. It is not, at about 6s 0-60.
    But the interior materials, fit finish is outstanding. The suspension is darn near perfection, and the shifts, ohhhh the shifts… like race car fast.

    • Sister and her ex had a Macan base, it felt like Porsche threw out Ergonomics in favor of performance.

      It was fun, but down in FL, AC wasn’t hitting your face right, and for a family with a baby, it was tight. Still, for your mom, it’s great, just imo, should have splurged a little for the S, get the V6 instead of I4

  13. After 180,000 miles on the odometer, I finally broke down and bought a new serpentine belt, the old one gets a little cracked, so it was time. Everything else checked out okay.

    The Nissan was ready to go for the 1800 mile trip. Finally taking a vacation in my retired years, I have a daughter that lives in Colorado and she wanted us to visit her for a short stay.

    Who wants a Range Rover when you have a Pathfinder?

    Colorado is a nice place on the planet, Denver and the string of cities on the Front Range, Boulder to Fort Collins, makes it a place to be.

    You have to have reservoirs, have to have water for a population of 3,000,000 souls.

    There are mountains of mountains in the Rockies.

    That right there is a luxury. Thar’s gold in them thar hills. Gemstones galore on Mt. Antero. Some silver in the Rockies.

    The mother lode is out there somewhere.

    The US Mint in Denver is there for a reason or was at one time. All the mint does now is strike zinc, steel and nickel with a little bit of copper. No gold, no silver minted coin for circulation, just for numismatic value.

    These days, cars and trucks are highly valued, without one, you go nowhere fast. One luxury you will want around night and day, ready to go in a second or two, cars do that just fine.

    Coloradans are no different than anyone else, they want transportation.

    You can see why Coloradans are on the move, night and day.

    There is plenty to do and see, that’s for sure.

    I’m going to make the journey back home, but would seriously consider being in Colorado for a six month stay to look for and to find some rocks in the Rockies.

    A ton of Beryllium Aluminum Silicate will make your day.

    • Just came back from Colorado. Visited Dunes Nat park, Mesa Verde and Rocky Mountain. Growing like crazy. Mt Evans has been renamed to Mt Blue Sky. It is now necessary to pay and get a permit to drive up that road. Rocky Mt Pk needs a permit after 9 AM. More rules, laws and regulations coming. Itz getting very liberal, Rural areas are still OKAY.

      • That road to Evans closes on Labor Day, I believe. It will be closed for a year or two now for repaving. It’s an incredible drive, even though your hands may cramp from white knuckling 😉

        • I made the trip up Mt Evans back in 1972 with my first new car. I came in from Illinois. There were no gates, no permits required and the road to the top was in very nice shape. There was even a stone coffee at the top.

          Things have changed with the new growing population. Itz gonna get worse. I still make it a point to visit every year.

    • I live in the Front Range. Yes it’s very blue, but the natural wonders more than make up for it. The weather is just spectacular. And I’m out on the fringes, so it feels much smaller than the Denver metro. Highly recommend it if you love mountains and sunshine.

      Not much water though.

    • Most people who move to Colorado these days are here for jobs and opportunity. Back as soon as 25 years ago people came here because they wanted to live here. Even local heroes like John Elway and John Malone, who did come here for the work, found it to their liking and stuck around even in retirement. Of course there’s always been a lot of mining, minerals and oil in the state too. The capitol dome is covered in gold, lest you forget.

      For that reason alone, CO has always been purple. Or perhaps a mullet, business up front, party out back (or west).

      Problem is, now the business of Colorado is moved away from underground to the skies and the aether. Work that can be done anywhere. People aren’t connected to the lifestyle either. And they don’t understand that it is a hard place to stake a claim. The highway is clogged, the lift lines are long, which is great for Vail, Inc. but not so nice if your boss won’t let you take a powder day because that project deadline is just around the corner. So you do what everyone does everywhere else, suck it up and become another vehicle clogging the highway on Saturday morning.

    • First time in CO for a summer vacation. We rented a cabin north of Durango. Absolutely beautiful trails for hiking with the family, even in Durango itself. Lion’s Den trail takes you above the town, what a view! But didn’t run into any mountain lions… 🙁

      The train from Durango to Silverton was a memorable experience.

  16. Maintenance costs. Perhaps not a big deal for the 3 year lease types, but even routine maint will costs far more for the RR. Post warranty, not sure I’d want the RR around.

  17. ‘so if you’re going to spend luxury car money, why not at least drive home the luxury-brand vehicle?’ — eric

    A couple of reasons. One is that the Evoq’s design (second photo from the top) — with its comically oversized wheels and smushed-down, featureless greenhouse — looks like an infantilized parody of an old shoe. It would be a smash hit with any eight-year-old boy. Having reached the age of majority, to me it looks like an absurd shiny toy that somehow, frighteningly, expanded to life size. :-0

    A second reason is that British engineering is not known for reliability. With Jaguar Land Rover now owned by Tata Motors of India, it’s not bloody likely to improve, either. Here’s a scathing repartee about rattletrap Rovers on R-R-Reddit:

    OP: I am really confused. Everyone says Range Rovers are very unreliable, easy to steal and expensive to maintain but still I see the cars everywhere. Don’t they care about all these issues? I am in love with how Evoque looks like but I never heard a single positive point about it.

    Remote_Person5280:Because they’re unreliable, easy to steal, and expensive to maintain. If you can afford to own one, you have money. Or you think it makes people think you have money.

    [deleted]: Plus most are leased, so reliability is not a concern on top of already being rich.

    https://tinyurl.com/5f8y37mt

    Mwa ha ha ha … fetch us the shotguns and a picnic basket and a couple of bottles of claret, Jeeves. We’re taking the shooting brake to hunt grouse at Balmoral. Ta ta, now! /snark

    • “With Jaguar Land Rover now owned by Tata Motors of India, it’s not bloody likely to improve,”

      Maybe you can get a Chinese assembled one…..lol

    • I grew up in a rich town in NJ, still work there daily. MOST of the cars are leased german’s. Generally speaking, they’re the reason you got “German reliability”, since they put regular gas and do the bare minimum with maintenance, leaving it for someone else to deal with when there 3 years are up.

      Why if I did look for a used German, I’d find ones that weren’t leased, as they’re more likely to be better taken care of

  18. A base model suits me fine. It has all the standard luxury items (AC, cruise control, power windows, etc.) that used to be optional back when I started driving in the mid 80’s. All the extras these days are just more of something to break down and costing a fortune to repair. And I also keep my autos long past after paying it off. My newest auto is 10 years old and is still going down the road like the first day I got it. No pesky payments and up until 4 years ago, that was money in the bank. Not so much now with the outrageous cost of living thanks to the Fed and their monetary policy and endless spending.

  19. A friend of mine used to be an engineer for the electricity co-op. He never married, lived in a trailer for decades. When he retired he built a cabin on some land his family owned, along with a large out building to house his Earth Roamer RV. When he first got it he gave us all the nickel tour, as one does. The Earth Roamer is a go-anywhere luxury vehicle built on an F-550 chassis. They chose the F-550 because there are Ford dealerships everywhere, so it’s not a big hassle to get the basics repaired, or parts shipped pretty much anywhere in the western hemisphere.

    In Colorado, where the SUV rules, there are 4 Land Rover dealers. There are 20 Ford dealers on the front range alone. I don’t know about you, but to me, having choice is a luxury. You have it out with the service manager at a shop over the bill? If you’re driving the Evoq, lotsa luck fella. But that Bronco can be fixed in 19 other places nearby. Maybe they all suck too (heck, these days they’re likely to be the same company), but at least they won’t all be the same manager.

    • Good point RK, dealer network availability is big. Especially with our on-the-road computers these days. But then sometimes ya just have to say WTF, I want to enjoy X.

  20. All of the Broncos I see around Austin are Garage Queens, pampered under the assumption that the owners hold something which will hold value better than, say, the Range Rover simply due to scarcity, similar to the way Toyota FJs.

    My neighbor’s Bronco is a case in point. It has its own “throne room” garage and only rolls out on nice days — not too hot, not too cold, and no rain.

    Mud? On a Bronco? God forbid.

    Ford just seems interested in catering to this market as of late. Even the Maverick is still sold at a premium by dealer insiders locally.

    The new Toyota Land Cruiser is regarded the same way. The dealer in Killeen (military town) has them but not many appear on lots here in town.

    • So true Roscoe. I am the complete opposite. Use them and abuse them I say. I call it pay to play.
      The funniest episode that we still talk about today was I bought a new dirtbike ($8-9K), and asked the dealer to break it in for me cause I was racing it the day after I picked it up. He didn’t understand, but did what I asked and ran it at a local off road place for me.
      The next day, my son and I both raced it at an extreme off road event, and had a blast.
      So I park it in the garage and a neighbor bike guy comes over the see the ‘new’ bike. He walks in the garage, ‘where’s the new bike?’. I was pre-occupied not looking at him and said it’s ‘over there’. Minutes go by and he raises his voice, “WHERE’s the new bike?”
      I didn’t understand, looked at him and pointed at the bike……….’right there!’.
      It was so beat to a pulp with scratches, flat tire, plastic hanging off, dents in the muffler, etc… he was flabbergasted. “I don’t f’n understand, there is no way this was a new bike 2 days ago?”
      Yes it is, well was, hahaaaa We’ll fix it.
      BTW, 4 yrs later, and lots of maintenance I still got $7K for it when I sold it.

    • Well, if he ever actually takes it off road, he better hope that the PLASTIC oil pan doesn’t hit anything. (I didn’t believe it until I saw a 4×4 show “upgrading” their pan to a metal one).

  21. What is really sad, is that no matter which one you buy, after taking out a 5 or 6 (or more) year loan to pay the vehicle off, the damned thing is made to not last much longer than your loan, so you really cannot enjoy the years of no car payments the way you used to. And for nearly 50K I want that thing to last a helluva lot longer than they think I should be allowed to run my now paid for vehicle.

    • Amen, Shadow –

      I think the same every time I drive my old truck. I’m about to buy a new idler pulley (the old one’s getting wobbly) and a few other “little things.” That’s all the truck has needed so far – and it’s 23 years old. It cost $14k new back in 2002. It costs me nearly nothing to keep it – and drive it. That’s bank. I cannot get into the headspace of people who are not very wealthy – and so can afford it – buying any new vehicle that costs more than $30k.

      • Turo ends up on the table in the F&I room from what I understand happens in dealerships around Austin as of late.

        And I watched a fascinating parade of high end vehicles coming and going in the “Doordash/Uber Eats” parking spaces outside a Thai restaurant one night earlier this year, including a Kia EV SUV and an F150 Lightning.

        This won’t end well.

        • Flip that observation on its head, Roscoe. The folks doing DoorDash and Uber Eats tend to be young, brainwashed kids. They are proud to do their part to save the planet, and are driving what they’ve been told is the ticket. I had an employee who I trained at a loss for 2-1/2 years (because he had aptitude and attitude, absolutely necessary in automation work). He and I talked often, and I just couldn’t break him of the belief inglobal warming/manmade climate change, and he always insisted he was going to have a Tesla.

          In the end, just before the Damnpanic, he took a job with Tesla in Reno.

          2 years later, he was back in the desolate plains, but proud of his new Tesla. 6 months later, the Tesla was parked, and he was driving a rusty Chevy pickup for electrician work.

          The only way to deprogrammed these victims of the indoctrination camps is to let them find out reality for themselves. And everyone of those DoorDash and Uber kids is learning the hard way about cost of operations, depreciation, range and climate limitations, etc.

          • I’d love to see the woke bankrupted by their moronic choices if only the people who get rich off them weren’t such evil scum.

          • I agree Ernie. Some of these young people have to learn the hard way what some of us have already been through and have tried to warn them about. The dangerous part is these idiots may very well try (or end up) to destroy the rest of us before they figure it out.

        • “high end vehicles coming and going in the “Doordash/Uber Eats”

          Huge monthly payments…going broke….takes 3rd job doing delivery…desperate…but….with 70 cents per mile vehicle expense…making almost nothing….

      • I know I am paying a bit more for this new car than I would like knowing good and well it is and never was worth that much. I keep my old ’07 simply because it still works it is just old. But the years comparison between the two are interesting. From no safety crap to a multitude, tire nanny, no CD player and far more fiberglass. Even th ’07 has more metal in the frame. Newer does not equate to better that is for sure.

    • Agree Shadow, but there’s another perspective. I say a car costs $500 to own every month whether you have a payment or not. Unless you are willing to drive an older vehicle, which I can not do in my job.
      I have to drive a late model vehicle for work (because of other peoples perspectives, not mine). My $50K truck is paid off. I will get $35K for it when I trade it on a new one that costs $55K. I write a check for $20K when I buy the new one cause I pay myself first. $20K over 4-5yrs max life for me is $400-500/month +/-. Works for me.
      My wife and I were just talking about this, and between our 2 vehicles over 20 years, we guessed we saved $50-80K in interest charges paying ourselves vs banks.

      • I and a friend who, after paying off her vehicle would “make monthly car payments” to herself so that when the time came she could nearly pay a new vehicle off when she drove it off the lot. Maybe if my grocery and heating fuel (and electric bill) had not doubled I could do so. And there again that is why vehicles cost so much more than they should nowadays. I just pray hyperinflation does not hit as that means what we are paying now for everything will be seen as cheap in comparison.

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